National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 266

I am an occupational therapist, having graduated in the 1980s, working primarily for participants of the NDIS. My main cohort of client is people with acquired brain injury.

The Bill proposes that the needs assessment and budget-setting method would be limited to considering needs that stem from impairments that meet the disability or early intervention requirements for entry to the Scheme. This approach would impose artificial distinctions in the way a person with multiple and interrelated disabilities accesses supports and could result in them receiving inadequate funding for supports.

My clients have complex presentations with physical, psychosocial and cognitive disabilities. Sometimes their physical functional ability is impacted by their emotional state. Sometimes their emotional state is impacted by their cognitive problems. For instance, someone who is able to walk slowly with a walking frame may not be able to do this when they are depressed. Or consider somebody who has difficulty planning how to get to the park and becomes frustrated and impulsive when crossing the road. This could lead to accidents, preventable if they have extra funding for a support worker to be with them.

The Bill proposes new powers allowing the NDIA to impose conditions on how a participant obtains supports, restrict spending of flexible funding, or override a participant’s plan management request.

As an OT working with people who have a certain amount of flexible funding in their plan, I am often asked for recommendations for them to purchase items that are not deemed reasonable or necessary. A list of items that are not funded by the NDIS is helpful to everyone. The participant knows they cannot ask for it and I know I cannot recommend it. This would include things that an ordinary home requires, such as curtains. And things that an ordinary person would use, such as a smartphone. However, I realise that there are always exceptions and these requests should be escalated beyond the plan manager in very special circumstances.

There have been occasions when my clients have a lot of money in core supports that would be impossible to use before the plan’s end. This has coincided with no funding left in assistive technology and none in capacity building. Reasons for this duplication of these funds would need to be taken into consideration by the NDIS. If it were valid, funds should be made available from core so that the participant can continue their program.

A lot of my clients have support coordinators. Some are excellent. The good ones understand the needs of their participant and the role of each of the therapists. They know where the client lives and how much support they have from friends and family. A good support coordinator is very involved. Unfortunately, this is not the case with most of them. Apart from being overwhelmed, they seem to be incompetent and therefore ineffective. Many of the above points I have made can be resolved and advocated for by a good support coordinator and I recommend that training and support be given to people who go into this role.

National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDI$ Back on Track No. 1) Bill 2024

Submission 266

Catherine

Catherine Merry Occupational Therapy ABN 15 137 261 240

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